Semiconductor memory devices, including flash memory, typically utilize memory cells to store data as an electrical value, such as an electrical charge or voltage. A flash memory cell, for example, includes a single transistor with a floating gate that is used to store a charge representative of a data value. Flash memory is a non-volatile data storage device that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. More generally, non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, as well as other types of non-volatile memory implemented using any of a variety of technologies) retains stored information even when not powered, as opposed to volatile memory, which requires power to maintain the stored information. Increases in storage density have been facilitated in various ways, including increasing the density of memory cells on a chip enabled by manufacturing developments, and transitioning from single-level flash memory cells to multi-level flash memory cells, so that two or more bits can be stored by each flash memory cell.
Data integrity warrants maintaining and assuring accuracy and consistency of data, and is critical to systems that store, process, and/or retrieve data. Any unintended changes to data as the result of a storage, retrieval or processing operation (e.g., due to unexpected hardware failure) is failure of data integrity. Some data integrity mechanisms (e.g., ECC) protect data against common kinds of internal data corruption, such as undetected bit-flips in memory. However, it is also important for data integrity mechanisms to protect against data integrity failures across longer data paths (e.g., from a data storage device to a host system).